


Down by the Eildon Tree

by havisham



Category: Thomas the Rhymer (Traditional Ballad)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Alternate Universe - Space, Elf/Human Relationship(s), F/F, Magic Indistinguishable from Science
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-19
Updated: 2014-06-19
Packaged: 2018-02-05 09:34:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1813738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/havisham/pseuds/havisham
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>And there she saw a ladye bright</i>
  <br/>
  <i>Come crashing down by the Eildon Tree</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Down by the Eildon Tree

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nary](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nary/gifts).



Tam slept, and dreamed of many things. She leaned against the grassy slope of the great Eildon Tree, which was so large that it comprised of the ground beneath her as well as canopy above. The wind tickled at her face and hair, fragrant with the smell of many flowers. Pleasant it was to wake under Eildon’s branches and watch as the light faded into night, sprinkled liberally with stars. If she wished, she could identify the brightest (and closest) point as being the City of Cities, the heart of the empire that stretched across the stars. 

Tam closed her eyes again. 

Most regarded an assignment to Eildon as a fate worst than death, but Tam didn’t think of it that way. It was a fate different than death. She knew that all the other observers who had been stationed on Eildon in the last fifty years had eventually gone missing, their communications petering out until there was nothing but silence to greet the inquiries from beyond. At one time, when she had been an ambitious young thing in the City, Tam would have protested such an assignment, but now… 

She opened and breathed deeply. It was so lovely! The air itself smelled of green and growing things. There was preternatural sense of calmness in the air, and grass against her body was soft and beguiling. Tam thought she could stay at this spot until the great tree sent little tendrils to wrap around her body and pull her deeper into the woody ground, until she became a part of Eildon Tree. 

It was not such a bad fate, after all… 

But such perfect peace, of course, was not meant for her. As Tam lay dazed and happy on her grassy hillside, a streak of white smoke marred the perfect blue skies above Eildon. Tam stirred at the sound of a distant explosion, the shock of which traveled to her resting place and woke her up as quickly and abruptly as a slap across the face would have done. She was on her feet within seconds, sprinting towards the column of smoke she could see rising beyond the nearest treeline. 

All around her, she felt Eildon shake with fear and anticipation, the same place that marked her own footsteps with bemused indulgence. Something far more powerful than Tam had landed here, and Eildon wanted them gone. 

In one of the valleys of Eildon, there was a great crater that was bathed in iridescent light. Tam hesitated at the edge of it, knowing that she should call it in to her superiors. 

Finally, there was something to observe on Eildon besides the gradual process of the tree-planet trying to absorb her! Her fingers lingered on the comm button on her belt, but before she could resolve to push it, the light collapsed suddenly, and took the shape of a person. 

The person was woman, built on a scale a few sizes larger than Tam. Her skin was brown and her hair was dark, and in her eyes shone the light that had been all of her just seconds before. She was dressed in fine green cloth, and she looked at Tam with a puzzled look on her face, as if she was trying to place her. 

Tam felt an absurd urge to bow. As it was, she attempted a sort of crab-shuffle down the edges of the crater, keeping her head down. Towards the bottom, the ground had melted glass-smooth, and so she slipped and would have fallen -- except the woman caught her. 

“Hail to you, Queen of Heaven!” Tam squeaked out before the woman let her go. Tam wished rather hard that Eildon had swallowed her up sooner rather than later. 

The woman laughed, a sound like the tinkling of fifty-and-nine silver bells. “I am a queen indeed, but not of place you are thinking of.”

“It is an old superstition,” Tam admitted, sheepishly. “I don’t know why I mentioned it.” 

“None of that, Tam Rhymer,” said the Queen, straightening up to show her considerable height. “I am the Queen of Elfland, and I am here to visit you.” 

“Me?” Tam squeaked, rather than said. “Are you sure you aren’t looking for another Tam?” 

“Are you saying that I made a mistake?” said the Queen, with a carefully constructed look of surprise. 

“Pardon me, your majesty,” Tam said with a humble bow. “But it was not I who crashed here.”

There was a terrible silence for a moment or two before the Queen laughed again, with the sound of silver bells. “I can see why you were exiled. Do you say such things to your masters too?”

“I am an observer,” Tam said, hurt. “And Eildon needs the company. This isn’t a punishment.” And I haven’t any master -- or mistress either, Tam wanted to say. But such sentiments would not, perhaps, go over well with a self-professed royalty. 

“If you will dare to kiss me, Tam, I could take you to places that you have never been,” the Queen said, and it was a tempting offer. Punishment or not, Eildon’s leafy charms seemed to pale before the presence of the beautiful Queen.

“I would, in weal or woe, my Queen,” Tam said, and so kissed her. It was a short kiss, and barely did Tam’s lips brush against the Queen’s rosy ones.

But the Queen smiled and wrapped her arms around Tam’s waist and murmured, “Then we are free to go and you are mine for seven years.” Her ship, such as it was, seemed to recuperate and wrap around them both, until they stood fixed -- but safe enough to launch them back across the stars. Tam spared one last thought for fair Eildon, who had lost yet another companion, through no fault of its own. 

 

* 

Somewhere along the line, Tam fell asleep with her head resting on the Queen’s shoulder. Their ship flew faster than the speed of light, faster and faster and saw many strange sights whiz by before everything slowed down to a halt. The Queen whispered in Tam’s ear, “Look down, dear, and tell me what you see.” 

Tam looked down and it seemed to her that under their feet there were three roads that diverged into the woods. One was a steep and narrow lane, beset with thorns and briars. Another was a wide and pleasant avenue, well paved and immaculately landscaped banks of lilies on either side. The last was a bonny road what was marred only by large and busy toll-plaza in the middle of it. 

“I thought we were in space?” Tam said, puzzled. 

The Queen rolled her eyes and folded her hands around her. She didn’t invite Tam to rest her head against her knee. 

“Is it a metaphor?” Tam asked. “We’re going on the third road, I guess? What’s the toll for?” 

“Don’t worry about it,” the Queen said in a tone that made Tam worry. “You pay when you get out. Do you always ask this many questions?” 

“But I didn’t even talk about that monstrous sea of blood we had to go through!” Tam said, feeling a little hurt. 

“Remind me to take you there sometimes,” the Queen said, brushing off an invisible speck of lint from her sleeve. “The fishing’s only so-so, but the sunsets are unbelievable.” 

“I don’t remember seeing any kind of light there…” 

“But then how do you know that was blood?” 

Tam considered this and shrugged. 

The Queen looked at Tam critically before continuing on. “So, here’s Elfland and some ground rules. First, if you eat or drink anything, you’ll have to be here forever. Second, don’t speak to anyone. Don’t start any wars with my neighbors, they’re very touchy. If you see any other humans in court, don’t approach them unless you have my express permission. Crimes against fashion are capital offenses, so dress with care. If you meet anyone named Titania or Oberon, run away as quickly as you can.” 

“I don’t know if I want to do this,” Tam said a little doubtfully. “Those are a lot of rules.” 

The Queen tilted her head to the side and seemed to mediate for a moment. “The only hard-and-fast rule is the not-eating thing. Oh, and tell no one your true name.” 

“But I love to eat,” Tam groused unhappily. 

Then, suspiciously, she said, “You knew my name.” 

“We all love things that we have to give up from time to time,” the Queen said with elaborate patience. “And I know everything about you, Tam True.”

“Oh all right, Miss Creepy,” Tam said, a little grudgingly.

The Queen batted her long lashes and said, “You have no idea.” 

* 

It was true that Tam had no idea, but in the next few days, she started to have the beginnings of one. Elfland was like nothing Earth or Eildon. It had an elaborate social structure that Tam knew would take her centuries to understand. So she didn’t try, electing instead to stick as close to the Queen’s side as possible, as much as she was able. The Queen seemed to find her company agreeable, and if Tam’s presence seemed to antagonize some of her lords, The Queen found that agreeable as well. 

“If only you knew, my dear,” she said, tucking a flower behind Tam’s ear, “what we have done to each other and will do in the future.” 

“Why don’t you tell me?” Tam said, catching the flower as it fell from her ear. The Queen took her arm and lead her on a slow walk around the gardens. 

“You have come at a good time,” the Queen said. “Peace reigns here as it has not done in almost a thousand years. Old enemies now mix with old friends and become the same. See there, that tall, lordly looking fellow, talking behind the topiary blige-rabbit. Once I swore that I would burn his kingdom down to the ground.” 

“That red-headed bean-pole? What did he do?” 

“Only killed my mother and father, and my little brothers too. With his brothers to help him,” said the Queen with a sigh. At Tam’s shocked look, she shrugged. 

“Why didn’t you burn his kingdom down?” 

“Who says I didn’t?” 

“... Which is why he’s here, talking behind the topiary blige-rabbit,” Tam said thoughtfully. 

“Keep your friends close,” the Queen said with a happy smile and squeezed Tam’s arm. “Come on, let me show you the orchards.” 

* 

The days passed pleasantly, melting into one another until they became a blur, time without an end, except for brief periods of intense activity and structure. A skirmish broke out on the borders of Elfland and Faerie, and Tam, taking a look at the enemy, could not quite see what the difference was. Next, she met a man who shared the same name as she, who looked pallid and hopeless and would not speak to her. The Queen took her to the shores of the blood-red sea and told her laughingly that all the blood that had ever been spilt resided there. 

Neither of them felt like having a swim. 

In the end of the seven years, the Queen took Tam’s hand and asked if she wished to stay or to go. “Think carefully of this, Tam True, for many versions of you have chosen this and that, and the consequences are always the same.” 

“Has it truly been seven years?” Tam asked when the Queen let her go. It seemed to her that her time in Elfland could be measured in weeks, perhaps, or a month or two. The Queen nodded gravely, her face a serene mask. 

“What will you have of me?” The Queen looked grave and quiet. She held up an apple and then a harp. “Choose.” 

Tam thought of the life she had left behind, first in green Eildon and before that, in the the City of Cities. She thought of the adventures she had had here, with the Queen, and how all things must come to an end. 

Impatiently, Tam shook her head. “If it pleases the Queen, I would serve her seven years more.” 

Something in the Queen’s expression flickered and brightened. “Brave Tam, I cannot guarantee how much time will pass between then and now. It was difficult enough to reckon the seven years you have spent already. Think carefully now on what you do.” 

“That’s all right, my Queen. My brain is my own, as is my tongue,” Tam said, taking the apple from the Queen’s hand. She shined it against her coat and looked approvingly at its ruby gleam. Then she bit into it with a satisfying crunch.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my betas.


End file.
